A blog of the NYU Colloquium on Market Institutions and the Leipzig Colloquium on the Market Order

by André Casajus[*] and Andreas Hoffmann Estonia was the first European country to introduce a flat tax on income in 1994. Many others followed. For example, Hungary successfully introduced a flat tax in 2012. In the U.S., some of the States (e.g. Pennsylvania) have introduced a flat tax on income. As in Germany, however, the … Continue reading An Axiomatic Case for the Flat Tax

by Shruti Rajagopalan Today is the 200th anniversary of David Ricardo’s On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, published on April 19, 1817. This remarkable, and rather unintuitive idea, is an essential component of every economist’s arsenal. When challenged by the mathematician Stan Ulam to name one proposition in the social sciences that was … Continue reading 200 Years of the Theory of Comparative Advantage

by Gunther Schnabl* The Brexit and the election of U.S. President Donald Trump were unexpected and were followed by a search for explanations. Subsequently, the common view spread that globalization is at the root of the frustrations of more and more people who are susceptible to strong nationalist statements from populists. This is surprising because … Continue reading Globalization Alone Does Not Produce Losers!

by Pablo Duarte* Venezuela is in deep political and economic crisis. According to Reuters – quoting a leaked document from the Venezuelan Central Bank – output fell 19% and prices increased 800% during 2016. Even though the “Socialism of the 21st Century”, the political program initiated by former President Hugo Chavez, has been losing support … Continue reading The Venezuelan Crisis and the Political Costs of Reforms

by Andreas Hoffmann A growing number of economists suggest that governments in highly indebted countries should consider liquidating debt via financial repression. In other words, they want governments to intervene in financial markets and push government borrowing costs below the rate of inflation to erode the real value of debt. In a previous post, I … Continue reading Are we all Debt Liquidationists now? … No!

For those of you with a keen interest in the history of economic thought, especially with regard to the history of the early revival of Austrian economics from the late 1970s, there is a site which has some interesting photos. Please check out the website for Austrian Economics Re-Examined: The Economics of Time and Ignorance … Continue reading Austrian Revival Photos

David Rockefeller in the late '30s reading Oscar Morgenstern's The Limits of Economics David Rockefeller, grandson of John D. Rockefeller, died recently at the age of 101. He was known for many things. But perhaps the least known of his accomplishments was his dissertation for which he was awarded a Ph.D. in economics from … Continue reading David Rockefeller as an Economist

by Andrea L. Tapia-Hoffmann* Rafael Correa was inaugurated as President of Ecuador in 2007. He joined forces with Chavez to promote the idea of a so-called "Socialism of the 21st Century" in Latin America. After Chavez’s death in 2013, Correa became the self-proclaimed leader of the movement. Because the new socialism has led to severe … Continue reading The Socialism of the 21st Century is on its Way out!?

I would like to bring the following to your attention: – Call for Papers – Monetary Policy in the 21st Century: The Renaissance of Austrian Monetary Economics Madrid, November 2nd and 3rd, 2017 Submission deadline: June 30th, 2017 The Faculty of Political Economy in co-operation with the Master Programme in Economics of the Austrian School … Continue reading Call for Papers: Austrian Monetary Economics Conference

by Andreas Hoffmann Government debt levels in many advanced economies, especially in Southern Europe, in the US and in Japan, have reached peacetime records. People are worried and rightly so: C. Reinhart and K. Rogoff have provided evidence that elevated debt-to-GDP ratios may contribute to stagnation or even debt crises. As austerity policies are unpopular … Continue reading Beware of Financial Repression

by Gerald P. O’Driscoll, Jr.[1] I have been reading Central Bank Governance & Oversight Reform, edited by John H. Cochrane and John B. Taylor. It is a conference volume of unusually high quality with all the discussions of presentations included. I plan to write more about the book later, but to highlight one chapter here. … Continue reading The Fed’s Institutional Design

by Alexander Fink[1] and Andreas Hoffmann Since 2009, the role of government in banking has increased substantially in Europe. This is, first, a consequence of capital injections or bailouts of private banks (for instance Dexia in Belgium, Royal Bank of Scotland in the UK, Hypo Real Estate and Commerzbank in Germany, Fortis in the Benelux, … Continue reading The Revival of State Banking in Europe

by Andreas Hoffmann and Mario Rizzo We had a look at the statistics of the blog when we updated the page. We learned that ThinkMarkets has published almost 800 blog posts since 2008. Some posts have received a lot more attention than others. We have selected an all-time TOP 5: TOP 5: Against all odds, … Continue reading Best of ThinkMarkets 2008–2016

by Andreas Hoffmann Ever since the beginning of the EMU crisis, politicians, journalists and economists have blamed Germany’s "fiscal austerity" for the prolonged troubles in Europe’s periphery. If only the Germans spent more on goods and services, so the idea, the people in the periphery countries of Europe could sell more stuff. Exports would help … Continue reading The Germans Have Learned Nothing

After most presidential elections in recent years there is talk of uniting the country, somehow overcoming differences and working for the betterment of the nation. This is a dangerous idea if it is taken seriously.

by Liya Palagashvili Earlier this summer, de Blasio attempted to cap the number of Uber and other ride-sharing drivers in New York City. Although he ended up dropping the proposal, the event itself serves as a wonderful pedagogical illustration of public choice insights. Here’s an excerpt from my op-ed on this: What can we learn … Continue reading Lessons from the Uber-de Blasio Showdown

Jerry O’Driscoll The Association of Private Enterprise Education will hold its annual meeting in Las Vegas, Nevada, April 3rd to 5th, 2016. This year’s conference theme is Capitalism: Free-Market or Crony? Papers are welcome on that topic, as well as other topics relevant to market economies. That list certainly includes Austrian economics, Public Choice, etc. … Continue reading APEE: Call for Papers

by Edward Stringham We hear of high profile cases of police killings, but few look at the larger picture of how often American citizens are killed by police. What is the rate at which police kill citizens and how does that compare to other homicide rates? Although official statistics have historically been scant, we now … Continue reading Calculating the police against citizen homicide rate